Put the cursor at the end of the “Target” line and add -skip_intro after the last quotation mark. Include a space between the quotation mark and the -skip_intro command.

Press “Apply” and then “Close”.

Double-Click the shortcut to run the game.

PERFORMANCE TIPS: COMPUTER LOCKS UP ON LOADING SCREEN / GAME

End any background tasks in order for the game to run stably:

Hold [Ctrl] and [Alt] and then tap the [Delete] key. This should bring up the “Close Programs” window.

Highlight an unnecessary application and press “End Task”.

Repeat this procedure to close any other programs (excluding “Explorer” and “Systray”)

Disable any anti-virus and/or crash guard software you have running.

Lower the video hardware acceleration to “basic”:

Right-click “My Computer” and select “Properties”

Pick the “Performance” tab

Choose “Graphics”

Lower “hardware acceleration” to basic.

Try selecting “game compatible device” or “use any available device” from the multimedia control panel.

Make sure that your desktop is set to at least 800×600, 16-bit high color and that you are using the latest driver for your sound and video cards. If your drivers are out of date or lack DirectX 7 support, there is a workaround:

You’ll need to modify the shortcut to The Sims. Browse to the Program Files\Maxis\The Sims directory (or whatever directory you’ve installed the game to), right click on Sims.EXE and drag it to your desktop, and select “Create Shortcut(s) Here”.

Once you have the shortcut on your desktop, right-click on it and select Properties.

In the ‘Target’ field it should say: “C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Sims.exe” (or the path to whichever folder it’s installed to).

Add the following to the end of the “Target” line: “-nodx6 -skip_verify -skip_intro -w”

If the game still crashes, you may be having sound problems. As a last resort, add “ -nosound” to the desktop shortcut as well.

PERFORMANCE TIPS: GAME LOCKS UP WITH REPEATING SOUND

Make sure you are using the latest sound and video drivers for your hardware. This sort of lockup is usually related to older drivers.